"A soloist has a conversation with the orchestra," said the piano virtuoso. "Whenever you play any piece it is different. You want to tell a story. You don't want to just show up and show off with technical skills.

"You want to show what a fantastic piece of music it is and let the audience have its own fantasies - whatever they are - while they listen to it."

Klein, a rarity in classical music, balances emotional and technical mind sets in his multiple roles as performer, interpreter and recording engineer.

"When there's a conflict of time, I decide to be the performer, not the recording engineer," said the German-born Klein, 63, who's been playing piano most of his life and helping others faithfully capture their musical performances for 25 years. "It varies. Sometimes I have to make difficult choices."

Klein assumes a clinical role when recording other musicians - mostly in concert settings he refers to as "aural snapshots" - for his Long Island, N.Y.-based Ultimo Productions. He's passionate and less-objective about his playing.

"I try to tell a story," he said during a recent conversation from Huntington, Long Island. "Not just play the notes. ... I try to slip into the mind of the composer. ... It's really not just a technical challenge. It's the emotional content. What does it all mean?"

It's a dilemma on either cusp of the engineering-performing divide.

"That might be the most challenging thing about being involved on both sides of glass," said Klein, who's performed and recorded with elite players and ensembles in major world venues. "You have to separate the two."

It's more challenging when Klein is being recorded - with a conductor "friend pushing the buttons." He's released three CDs since 1998.

"I get exhausted," Klein said. "Sick and tired of the repertoire, the editing and post-production. Until three months later. Then I approach it with a fresh mind: 'This is why I became a pianist and why I play this way.' I couldn't play any other way."

He separates himself while pushing buttons for others.

"You try to make the best possible ... presentation aurally," said Klein, who's recorded projects for CDs, DVDs, videos and Internet downloads. "I try to present them in the best light. Oftentimes, they sound better than they really are."

Klein, born in Berlin, became fascinated with sounds and audio technology after obtaining a monaural Telefunken Magnetophon 85 as a teenager. He kept pace with technology and maintains a state-of-the-art equipment collection.

Klein started playing at 7 during a time when there were pianos in most German living rooms. His father, Hans, an exporter-importer, played violin. Mom Barbara, a "housewife," played piano as did his sister.

"I guess I heard them," Klein said. "There were no CDs. Not necessarily even a gramophone. I'd sight-read and do it badly, but have fun. That used to be the case 50 years ago. Now, it's just a piece of furniture. It's just decoration. At that time, it was part of growing up."

Klein, unable to "envision a 9-to-5 desk job," was guided by a "very, very good teacher who presented the best students in concert halls in front of critics and the general public," he said. "At the end of high school, it became apparent this is what I should do. I wound up doing it."

He earned a degree at New York's Juilliard School before moving on to teach, perform and receive graduate degrees at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and Houston's Rice University.

Klein began the engineering side of his career in Texas, though "I stayed in Texas too long" before re-locating to New York.

"Editing has sharpened my ear tremendously," he said. "I hear little flaws very, very quickly. I become over-sensitive. I have to be when I record. I have to tell myself it's OK if I make a slight mistake or something's not 100 percent clinically flawless. It's life. It's not fabricated. Not cleaned up or doctored. It's a one-time event. That's it."

He reflected on the 30-minute Beethoven composition he'll interpret.

"Sometimes it's meat and potatoes and not ice cream," Klein said of the master's music. "This is actually quite different. It's a delicate piece. It's so transparent. It has so much lighter fare in the piano part. Bringing that across against an orchestra, that's more of a challenge.

"A piano only looks sturdy. It's as fragile as a violin. Every time, I have to make this piano a friend. It's an extension of the body. Expressing myself on that particular instrument can sometimes be a battle."

He's on the right side of the glass in Stockton.

"The audience cannot get the same feeling it obtains by listening to a record or watching on TV," Klein said. "It's just not the same thing."